#145. How To Develop Your Character's Backstory

Crafting compelling backstories for your fictional characters is critical to developing a cohesive story, but it’s sometimes easier said than done.

There are endless options when it comes to which details you can include in your character’s backstory, and what you do include will influence everything that happens in your story—from the plot events to your character’s motivations to your own ability to manage the thematic subtext of your story on a scene-by-scene-basis.

In this episode, I’m going to walk you through how to develop your character’s backstory in three steps, including things like:

• [04:12] How to uncover your character’s wounding event that gives rise to a specific fear (or inner obstacle) that haunts them in the present-day
• [06:57] A framework to help you crystalize your character’s inner obstacle—and why doing this work helps you establish where their character arc starts
• [09:31] How your character’s backstory can help inform your plot (and help you create meaningful conflict to help them grow and change)
• [12:55] An exploration of Simon Basset’s backstory and character arc (from the first Bridgerton book, The Duke & I)
• [17:42] Episode recap and final thoughts

Developing your character’s backstory before you start writing can help you develop your theme, craft your plot, build your story world, and so much more. That being said, there’s no “right” or “wrong” time to flesh out your character’s backstory. Do whatever works best for you and your process!

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🔗 Links mentioned in this episode:

• Ep. 14 - How to Handle Character Backstory in Your Novel
• The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

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